Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Bob worked from home today which is always a treat :-) We got to go to lunch together, yay. We went to the little french bistro... They forgot about us and our order :-( Never mess with a hungry, busy, pregnant lady it throws off her whole day!! Seriously.

By the time we realized, we then had to get the order to go. To make up for the mess up, the owner added 2 cups of their fab fab chocolate mousse!! This would normally be awesome - but instead I am more ANGRY because I can't have it **sigh** This almost put me over the top to crying - I MUST be near the end of this pregnancy.
The mousse sits and mocks me in our refridgerator. puff.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

BGB still does not have a name. It may surprise everyone to know that a perfectly valid name has been picked by me but the Kari Gestapo shot it down. "What is this name and how many of my own children may I use it for?" I hear you asking. Well, I normally wouldn't do this but since it's clear that none of my progeny will feel the warmth of it's everlasting glow, you may use it. The name to end all names is, of course, Roberta. "But, how will I teach her humility when she is the envy of everyone she meets?" you ask. First, I say, look at you with all the questions. Second, humility is the yoke that all of you had hoisted upon you when your parents decided not to name you Robert or Roberta or your ethnicity's equivalent thereof. Obviously I am unqualified to answer your question about this thing you call humility.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

T minus 7 weeks! Last week I had my check up with my doctor and got some more information on my Gestational Diabetes.

On the up-side, because of the GD and complications that can arise, the Dr absolutely will not let me go past my due date, and if I get to that date she will induce. This is helpful news with planning and expectations. On the down-side, I now have to go into the dr office twice a week for fetal stress tests. They will hook a monitor up and watch the heart beat for 30 minutes to an hour at each visit.

Also, in 3 weeks (36 weeks) we will do another ultrasound to check the baby's weight and size. This will help the Dr make decisions for delivery. At first 7 weeks seemed so far away, but when I realized I have to go back in 3 week for the ultrasound I had a brief moment of anxiety!! 3 weeks will go by so fast - especially in terms of work and getting everything done I need to do before leave and it will only be 4 weeks after that - yikes!

As for my condition, I have been a bit more grumpy in the evenings and the nice weather has me longing to be more mobile - but just can't. I told Bob that I had my hospital bag mostly packed and he laughed out loud. He joked that he'd wake up in the middle of the night and find me sitting in the car waiting to go to the hospital. Is it that obvious that I'm ready to go? LOL

Today, the cashier at the Babies R Us checkout asked me how far along I am and I told her 7 more weeks - she said, "Wow! You look Hella-good". You gotta luv when you get a compliment when you are feeling down and dumpy - especially a compliment as funny as "Hella-good"!!!

Today (March 15th, 2010) my little nephew was born. Gavin Julius Gianella. Gavin managed to even the family ratio of boys to girls here in California - good thing I know I'll be having a girl soon so that once more, girls will rule again!

Gavin's given middle name, Julius, is not just because of the day he was born, it is also a family name. Kenny's and my Grandpap Kovacs was named Julius. He hated it. He actually went by "Jeff". We always thought it was cool and would tell him that one day, one of us would use his name for one of our children. He did not like this idea! But I think use within a middle name is good and what could fit better than for a baby born on March 15th!

Once when visiting Aunt Veronica (Grandpap's sister) in Tahoe, we told her how he didn't like his name and she said, "What!? Oh... that's just because the kid's [in school] called him 'Ceasar'." A little tidbit that Grandpap had always left out of his story. Don't you love getting inside family information :-)

One other good thing about visiting Gavin in the hospital - it was a peek into my near future. Kenny let bob practice "swaddling" on Gavin. One swaddle, enough training, I think we're ready now... right?

Monday, March 15, 2010

This is me at my baby shower, 31 weeks prego. It was a very fun shower or should I say it was a "Berry Fun" shower ;-)
My mom flew in from Pittsburgh with suitcases full of surprises. Custom cookies, toys from my childhood and onesies/puffy paint for everyone to decorate. The shower was at Twist Bistro in Campbell. A little french restaurant within walking distance of our house.
Pink place mats, various pink Gerber Daisy's, pomegranate Pink Champagne drinks, chocolate dipped strawberries, pink cookies shaped like onesies, red velvet and berry berry cupcakes and my old Strawberry Shortcake toys completed the theme!
Also, my friends Ellen and Amy flew in from TX which made it super special because I know that they have (big) families of their own and it's not easy to get away. Even if it was a quickie it was great having them visit!
Actually a lot of friends came together and provided me with more gifts than I know what to do with... literally - I have no idea what to do with some of this baby stuff - but I'm sure I'll learn.
Thanks to Mom, Abrie, Amy, Courtney, Ellen, Fiona, Heidi, Shoshana, Shaye, Stacia and Tara for coming, celebrating, the great gifts and drinking in front of me... LOL My only regret was that we didn't grab a group picture! ugh! But maybe we'll all get together again for an "I popped this baby out party". Courtney has already volunteered her house so I've already eagerly RSVP'd ;-)
Also thanks to everyone who sent gifts - especially for putting up with my slim registry. My friend Shannon has already yelled at me about this so you don't have to! Anything I received ahead of time, I saved and opened at the shower for extra fun. There is only one problem... If you ordered off of Babies R Us registry, there has been no documentation of WHO sent the gift!! Even the pre-wrapped gifts... There have been shipping docs, but no "FROM". So if you did buy us something from BRU please let me know what you bought so I can properly thank you :-)

Monday, March 8, 2010

A couple weeks ago I found out that I failed my 2nd glucose stress test. This means I have gestational diabetes, I have been meaning to blog about this, but have been so busy!

My fasting blood sugar was great so that was good news. The doctor said my sugars weren't too far off and felt this could be controlled with diet and exercise rather than insulin - which was great news. Also we were told this is very different than diabetes in that the placenta is reacting with my body and liver changing the way I process sugars. This will go away after I have the baby - although I am at a slight risk of developing diabetes later in life - but again controlled diet and exercise could negate this risk.

Also when we had gone for the ultrasound when Arlene was visiting, the sonogram guy said he was shocked to hear I had GD because the level of amniotic fluid was normal (in Gestational Diabetes you would see extra fluid around the baby, or so he says) and further, Baby Girl Briski's stomach circumference was on the thin side - or about week behind her "estimated gestational age" (whereas babies tend to be bigger and heftier with GD).

To take care the GD, I had to go to a special clinic to talk about a diet plan and get all the equipment to check my blood sugar. Basically I check my blood 4 times a day: 1) Fasting, first thing in the morning, 2)1 hour after breakfast, 3)1 hour after lunch and 4) 1 hour after dinner. I have to record the numbers, my meals and my snacks. The diet was nothing new to us, actually it's how we normally eat - I just now have to watch the starches and not indulge in the pregnant treats I had been allowing myself, no more milkshakes or chocolate treats - Boooo.

Apparently the placental reaction for digesting carbs is worse in the MORNING so you are supposed to avoid carbs in the morning - this is backwards to my normal dietary day - Normally I have things like Kashi, whole grain toast or fruit to start my day. Also, absolutely no juice. Again, normally I didn't have juice, but since I've been preggers I'd been drinking juice instead of coffee in the morning. One morning I was miserably eating scrambled eggs with water and wondered why eggs have to taste so "eggy". I mean, scrambled eggs and water... YUCK. Also, poor Bob was going to make a concious effort to cut all dairy out of his diet and now my diet is VERY dairy rich...

Though this whole GD is bummer news, I kinda like checking my sugar after I eat, it's like a little science experiment. I try to see what I can eat and keep my sugars normal. For example, when following the diet very strictly my sugars were actually below the normal range so I started to add things back to my meals like an apple with breakfast or an orange with lunch - so far so good! Good bye scrambled eggs and water!!

UPDATE 3/4/10: I went back to the clinic for my 1 week check up and my fasting blood sugar has been so good I don't have to check that in the morning anymore! Also I have been so good, I had asked if I could cheat for my baby shower (uh hem... cupcakes!!) and she said "yes"!

Lastly, Bob and I have been laughing about my poor belly button... We keep trying to imitate what it looks like, or rather, what face would my belly button make if it were a person. We imagine that it's saying "oh, nooooo!" I'll leave you with that! LOL

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Bob's mom, Arlene, came to visit us for a little while for her anual February trip. Birthday trip mixed the general desire to escape all things gray and snowy in Pittsburgh, especially this year!

We did lots of things, but one activity that we were able to do with both Arlene and my mom, Jeanne, was to take each to a sonogram of the baby. Since they are both so far away we wanted each grandma to be able to share and take a peek into a little piece of the pregnancy. Even though their visits were about 2-3 weeks apart, at each sonogram, Baby Girl Briski had her hands in front of her face for most of the time.

All in all everything looked good. She's got a big head - Arlene and I both pointed at Bob at the same time. Physically that comes from Bob, but egotistically, we don't know yet, but that might come from me LOL

Other activities included a famous Stacia Facial, visiting a local winery, bocce, walking around Santa Cruz and lounging on the deserted winter boardwalk and going to San Francisco to see Golden Gate Park.